Taking stock #finance #investments

If you’re following my blog you’ll know my investments haven’t done well this year. While money is very helpful it is not the most important thing in life so now I can pause and think about my priorities. I’m taking stock and while I do so, I’ll still monitor the stock market and my investments. Zopa is a fairly safe investment and that is still bringing me in over 3% so things aren’t so bad!

Taking stock

My stock market portfolio shows some weak signs of recovery too. The share price of Immupharma dropped fairly dramatically but it seems to be increasing slowly now the panic is over. The results of phase three of their trial of Lupuzor wasn’t great but they weren’t as bad as many investors believe. I think Immupharma could still be a great investment. There was news about Solo Oil with the appointment of a new director who owns a significant percentage of the shares with options to buy more at 7p a share. This is significant for Solo Oil and shows it has potential. People are buying Solo Oil but the market makers are suppressing trading with high spreads. The company seems to be taking stock at the moment and consolidating its position by bringing in more expertise and looking at innovative ways to unlock the oil and gas in Tanzania. We could get good news from the play at Horse Hill at any time too.

Fantasy

You might remember I started a fantasy portfolio not long ago that was mostly pharmaceutical companies. The portfolio is in profit but when you take into account stamp duty and dealing fees it is making a slight loss. Dealing fees are really a big problem for small investors. The financial system favours the rich.

Other interests

I’ve been putting my other interests to the forefront of my mind now. Taking stock is about a pause, but that pause relates to finance and investments, I still have my writing, photography and art to keep me occupied. So I have been helping with an art/photography project over the past week. Money can become an obsession, other interests help us to keep a sense of proportion and help us to stay objective.

That’s it for this week. Life is about taking risks and although my investing is going through a rough patch, I get a certain amount of pleasure from it and enjoy the ‘game’. If you don’t play, you will never win!